02 September, 2008

I'm off to Eurobike in a couple of hours. Eurobike is a huge bike show in Friedrichshafen, Germany on Lake Constance. It's a part of Europe I've never visited, where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet. In fact my hotel is in a tiny alpine village in Austria about 45km from the show.

The show itself cosists of 13 halls and over 930 exhibitors. I'm looking forward to chatting with some of the lesser know European manufacturers, espesially those involved with city and commuter bikes.

I'm a bit of a fanatic about traveling light and am only taking my little Nokia 800, so I'll be able to read e-mails, but the touchscreen keyboard is too small to reply to the 50 or so e-mails I get everyday. I mention this partly because the Nokia 800/810 are super mini-computers to use on bike tours if you absolutely must stay connected. It also works as an e-book reader, stores all the maps I need, and the 810 has a built in GPS.

I've been concerned lately that the things I purchase are Fair Trade products. I don't generally worry about Europe, Japan, or even Taiwan. But I worry about things from other places. Can you also ask producers about workers being paid enough money that they can live on. Even if this means us paying a little more. Thanks!

@dorina: very good point. all the companies I mentioned above sell products made in Europe (by happy Europeans one hopes!) except Fixie (frames made overseas) & Exustar (a Taiwanese company I believe). Chris has sourced a few US products, and that's a Good Thing.

Shoes are a good idea. Something that looks like not much, if you know what I mean: comfortable and mult-functional, but not flashy, super-tech, or spiderman. No need for cleats. Like the Avocet touring shoes, are those still around somewhere?

Really only two things that I'd like to see and are not currently offered:1) Nicely polished, not too expensive (under $250 w/ rings) 94bcd crank. 110 is good but being able to run a 30 or 32 ring would be better.

2) Touring shoes. Something similar to the old Avocet, Gaerne or Carnan models though ideally with an ability to run SPD

More saddle options can't hurt - not everyone fits a Brooks and I'd love to see something along the lines of the old Turbo. Heck, wouldn't mind seeing a modern version of the plastic Unicanitor saddle!

How about 7/8/9/10 speed cassettes? Shimano makes a 14x25 but what I'd love to see is a 14x28.

A nice, affordable dynamo powered LED headlight would be good.

What NOT to bother with:110 cranksetsCantilever brakespedals (what does MKS not offer??)

fair-trade products only made in china. Rod shifting front derailleurs. A way to fix that big sucking sound coming from all the classic parts getting vacuumed up by japanese collectors for outrageous sums.

"Cinelli is reissuing the Unicanitor saddle...word on the street says that they'll be released to the public in October (got the word from King Kog in NYC)."

Believe it when I see it! I've been hearing that rumor for the better part of 10 years!

This might have more credence now given the popularity of fixed gear/retro road bikes. All they would have to do to insure its success would be to call it "editione pista". In fact, they would probably have a good market for a re-issue of their forged stems and mod 64,65,66 bars. They could do a whole "retro line" with the old crest logo. Nitto has pretty much cornered that market right now.

@ anonyme 05/09/08 21:21sugino still makes that 110BC 'ritchey' crankset, along with quite a few other very nice 110bc square taper cranks. their website doesn't show any of it, but search for the german store called 'radplan-delta'- this store specializes in 110bc cranks among other things, for good reasons. i'm sure chris could get them too.